Departure Day

Here we are at Ocean Yacht Marina in Portsmouth, Virginia waiting for departure day.  Truth be told we have not just been sitting and waiting - we have had long, long "To Do" lists that we work through every day.  One of those projects was replacing the "head" - which is the commode for you land lubbers.  That ate up about two weeks of our time. 
We removed all the items that cause issues: hoses, pumps etc...  Now we have a composting head.  Sounds a little gross - but no more so than carrying around a holding tank.  So far, so good.  Best part about it is that it will always work and we will not have to deal with plumbing issues again!!  

Working on platform for the new head

 Our departure day was supposed to be May 4th but since we are the only ARC boat in the marina we will just catch up with the ARC when we reach Bermuda.  Our crew arrives tomorrow and it looks as if we may depart on Monday rather than Saturday.  There is a front rolling through right now and it should be moving out by Monday.  That will give us enough time to make it across the Gulf Stream without any storms and the wind in the right direction.  The weather has been crazy - one storm system after another.  We see maybe two days of calm weather and then it starts again. So... when we get a window we are leaving!  Next post from beautiful Bermuda!!

12 days, 14 hours, 53 minutes and 31 seconds and counting...

We are counting down the days, and hours, and minutes and even seconds!!  Still working through lists but getting closer and closer to wrapping up the finishing touches.  Ordered yet another halyard today - we have had strong winds here in Portsmouth, Virginia and noticed some chafe that wasn't there the last time we checked.  We are so thankful that we have had these few weeks to really go through things on the boat and make sure all systems are working well.  Feeling pretty ready...
Our crew members arrive on Saturday and we will spend some time going out with them 
on the boat.  Plan on practicing  
a few maneuvers with them and just having some overall "become more familiar with the boat" time.  

We hung the ARC flag yesterday and received our yellow brick tracker in the mail.  More shopping tomorrow - its amazing how much food you can store in all the little nooks and crannies.  We still think we will depart on the 4th of May - but we will see what the weather forecasts are for the week of the 29th.  Stay tuned!!

Preparing for ARC Europe 2019

Sunset just a few days after Hurricane Florence

For those who follow our blog I apologize for being so remiss.  Last year was a "no travel" year as we were preparing for the ARC Europe rally.  Since we weren't traveling I did not 
do any writing.  I could have written about the preparations but that would not appeal to many folks!  So the rally is a transatlantic crossing with other boats.  True to our plan we have spent the last five years sailing the east coast of the US.  Now we are headed to other shores.  Our plan is to sail in the Mediterranean for the next few years.  And to get to the Med we joined a rally.  Needless, to say there has been a tremendous amount of prep for this trip.  So... that is what we did pretty much all of 2018.  We installed all new electronics, a wind generator and a pactor modem.  The modem works with our SSB radio so that we can receive email while at sea.  To say it was all "not seamless" would be an understatement.  And then of course, Mother Nature had some more fun in store for us.  We were in New Bern, North Carolina when Hurricane Florence arrived.  No-one knew where Florence was going to hit so folks were left wondering where to go and what to do.  We ended up staying in the water at New Bern Grand Marina and thank God we sustained relatively minor damage.  Many, many boats sank.  Essentially all the boats across from us sank - maybe two survived.

This is a picture of the marina across from us.  Not good. 

This was one of many boats that ended up on the land.  People all up and down the Neuse River found boats etc... in their yards.

To give you an idea of high the water got this is a picture of our boat and the piling that our dock is attached to.  This is a floating dock - there are rollers that allow the dock to ride up and down that piling.

 The dark marks on the piling is where the rollers rode to.  You can see that we came within 16 inches of the dock being over the top of the piling altogether!!  Then all the docks and the boats attached to them would have just floated away.  
We were so grateful that we survived!  New Bern took a big a hit- but true to their community spirit they came right back!  Great little town.  After Florence we had enough sense to know that the remaining work we needed done would not get done anywhere around there.  Just too many boats damaged.  So... as soon as we were able we sailed her to Deltaville, Virginia.  We left Talaria in Deltaville and headed home for the holidays.  And now we are back.  We arrived in Deltaville a week ago, finished a few things up and then sailed her to Portsmouth, Virginia.  This is the departure point for the rally.  So far Michael and I get up start working and the next time we look at the clock its dinnertime!  But we are getting through our lists and feeling more and more ready every day.  The rally departs on May 4th.  We will have a tracker on the boat so you can follow us across if you choose.  To do so you would have to download the YB races app.  It will ask you to add a race.  The race/rally is "ARC Europe 2019".  You then select a leg.  There are 3 legs: Portsmouth to Bermuda, Bermuda to Azores and Azores to Lagos.  Again the rally doesn't start until May 4th so you won't see anything until then.  Once you get on the app and select a race and leg you will see little boat icons on the water.  If you select an icon it will tell you the name of the boat.  If you click on the name it will tell you the position of the boat.  You just have to click on boats till you find us - Talaria.  Stay tuned for more!